The bet

25.Evil

Joel.

''Is it true what I heard from school today?'' father asks.

Me and Avril are standing in front of him, in his studio. 

I look up at him, unable to make eye contact.
Is he mad at us?

''Is it true?'' he asks again.
Power in his eyes. 

I swallow nervously and take a glance toward Avril standing by my side.
She looks as nervous as I am.

I try to speak, but Avril beats me to it. 
''Father, we only wanted to teach them a lesson, we didn't-''

''Well done.'' he interrupts her.
Well what?   

Avril and I look at each other, both not trying to hide the surprise.  

This moment feels unreal.
He said, well done right?  I didn't hear him wrong, did I?

Is my father praising me? 
It's my second time having this warm nice feeling.

He praised me once when I hacked the Meyers.
Now, he did it again.

Do I need to be a bad person every time, so my father can be proud of me?

The worst thing is that I would do it again.
I would be a terrible person to have my father look at me like that again. 

''You two proved to me that you are a Cullen.'' he says to both of us, ''And you Joel, proved me that you have no mercy for Olivia Meyer.''

My chest stings at the mention of her name.

''Hm, I'm actually surprised. I really thought you wouldn't do anything to her.'' he says and gives me a proud look.

The little child inside of me starts dancing and jumping around from the sight of that look. 

''But.'' he says and gets up from his chair, ''I expect you to do more. The show you did today was just a child play.''

Of course, he expects more.
He always does.

''Actually I...'' I swallow nervously, ''Um...about the task you gave me-''
"Did you find anything?" he asks.
"Uh...well yes.'' Katrina did. 

Avril gives me a question look and I give her the 'I'll tell you later' look.

I take my phone out of my pocket and start speaking, ''They are working on a project. A big one. Which takes all the company's finance and time. Their partnership is another big company from Russia. This project will give them a lot of income, but if something happens to it, they will lose a lot. If they lose this project, the company will be damaged pretty bad. That's why they are keeping it a secret.''

I show him my phone with the project's pictures and pictures of the other company.
He takes my phone and looks at it.
He nods and then looks at me with something in his eyes.

His eyes are shining when he looks at me.
Is that...a good thing?
I'm not used to it. 

''So, I was thinking.'' I continue after he gives me my phone, ''That we could sabotage this project. Like mess up with its data and slow their work. By the time they figure that there has been an intruder the project will be already ruined. Their company's finance will be also damaged so they won't be able to redo the project. And also, they will be on debt with the Russian company.''

I came up with this plan myself. 
Not Katrina.  
She only found out about the project. Which was so well hidden. How did she manage to find out about it, blows my mind.
That girl is dangerous. 

I look at my father and there is a light smile in his lips.

Is he really seeing me as worthy now?

''Can you, do it?" he asks me.
"Yes.'' I say, ''I can hack it.''
"Surprise me Joel.'' he says and sits in his chair.